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Paying Students to Stay in School

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  • Andrew McKendrick

Abstract

I examine the impact of the Education Maintenance Allowance, a conditional cash transfer in England that was available nationally from 2004 to 2011, on a range of short- and long-term outcomes. Average treatment effects are identified, assuming unconfoundedness, using Inverse Probability Weighting Regression Adjustment. Treatment effect heterogeneity is examined using Causal Forests, a new machine learning approach. I find beneficial impacts of EMA on retention, university attendance and, for the first time, insecure work, as measured by the probability of being on a “zero hours†contract. Other outcomes (educational attainment, risky behaviours, and labour market outcomes) are found not to be impacted.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew McKendrick, 2022. "Paying Students to Stay in School," Working Papers 352591296, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:lan:wpaper:352591296
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    File URL: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/content-assets/documents/lums/economics/working-papers/LancasterWP2022_002.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lorraine Dearden & Alexandra Heath, 1996. "Income support and staying in school: what can we learn from Australia's AUSTUDY experiment?," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 17(4), pages 1-30, November.
    2. Glewwe, Paul & Kassouf, Ana Lucia, 2012. "The impact of the Bolsa Escola/Familia conditional cash transfer program on enrollment, dropout rates and grade promotion in Brazil," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 505-517.
    3. Seth Richard Gitter & Bradford Barham, 2009. "Conditional Cash Transfers, Shocks, and School Enrolment in Nicaragua," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(10), pages 1747-1767.
    4. Susan M. Dynarski, 2003. "Does Aid Matter? Measuring the Effect of Student Aid on College Attendance and Completion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 279-288, March.
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